Greetings, DEF CON community. Today, we bring you another update to our growing online archive for DEF CON 22 - all the links to the presentation materials, wrapped in a pretty little RSS bow for your convenience. All the presentation slides, links to all the tools and extras, all by grabbing the link below. Perfect for every occasion, and excellent as a holiday gift for the hard-to-buy-for geeks in your life. Because we love you. Watch this space for more DC22 video soon.

Sure, you love your DC22 badge. You love its sleek design and its powerful S guts. You swoon for its enigmatic symbols and breathtaking adaptability. But deep down, you worry that you could love it a little more if there was badge code available in C.

Because we love you, a midweek treat: enjoy the thrilling conclusion to DEF CON 22's Hacker Jeopardy Competition. For those of you playing along at home, good luck. For those of you attempting to listen in a public space, be warned there is foul language shouted at weather-altering volume. Headphones suggested.

For your enjoyment, we offer you Night One of our long-running hacker trivia gameshow 'Hacker Jeopardy'. Match wits with our champions by playing along at home (beers optional). If you play along at work, remember the headphones. Salty language and lots of shouting.

This was a first year contest that asked entrants to script, shoot, edit and submit a short film in 48 hours, in the middle of DEF CON. Seven teams entered, four teams submitted a final film and the winner was announced by celeb guest judge Brian Knappenberger (director, 'We are Legion' and 'The Internet's Own Boy'). They're also available to watch on the DEF CON YouTube channel.

First up for your next leech 'n seed, we have the video for all the Wireless Village talks. That's three days worth of talks about subjects like Software Defined Radio, Bluetooth and yes, the Pineapple. Get on it, and you could have a significantly higher Wi-Q by Monday.

We’ve updated the CTF page on the DEF CON website. In addition to being the new permanent home for the torrent link to CTF packet capture Valhalla (170 gigs of that uncut raw), it’s also home to a small but hopefully growing number of walkthroughs and write-ups. As we get them in, we’ll put them on.

That’s what we are doing for you, for loving the CTF tournament. What you can do for us is seed, seed, seed and spread the word.

Your half-full drives are vulnerable. The webs are just looming there, waiting to pump your memory full of bad music, dumb videos and pictures of other people’s unremarkable pets. Protect yourself. Fill up that dangerous unused space with DC-related goodness.

For today’s #defconflashbackfriday we’re going all the way back to August of 2014 and serving up the DEF CON 22 closing ceremonies. So if you were at the show but didn’t make it to the end credits,or you haven’t been to a DEF CON and want to get an idea of the sheer scope of the event, this flashback is for you.

That’s right: 170 glorious gigabytes, packaged up in a handy torrent for your convenience! All of the traffic from the World Series of hacking contests, now yours to fold, spindle and mutilate to your heart’s content.

Enjoy, share, and if you can, seed this data. Packet captures taste better when they’re shared.

Every year, we collect and share a sampling of the published reports from the press that covered DEF CON. It's interesting to see what gets the most interest, and it's gratifying to see that every year there are less stories about how scary hackers are and more stories about the incredible things hackers create and what we can learn from investigating the technology that surrounds us.

Transportation security, digital privacy, and the unexpected musings of eccentric AV software titans seemed to top the list in 2014. You can peruse the whole thing at your leisure on our press archive page.

Ladar Levison and Stephen Watt are working on the future of secure email. For your Thursday, we offer you the peek into their work on DIME that they shared with us at DEF CON 22. It's a very interesting talk, with a lot of information and acronyms. There's a lot to learn about how email security is broken, and a lot of ideas about how it could be fixed in the future.

Maybe you weren’t able to attend the the hacker playground that was the 22nd DEF CON. Perhaps you did, and just didn't get to pick up all the bleeding edge research our speakers were throwing down.

Take heart, hacker brethren and sistren, our friends at the Source of Knowledge record it all, and you can purchase those presentations for frame by frame forensic dissection in HD video format! In fact, they also offer a streaming option for those that like to keep it online.

Good news, everyone! The archive page for DEF CON 22 has opened for business. It feels like DC was only a couple of weeks ago, but you can already see the slides and extra materials from all the main-track talks. We’ll eventually be adding audio and video as well, so keep an eye on this space. In the meantime, bum rush these Power Points to your heart’s content.

Early Release! More video from DEF CON 22! This time it's a presentation from Zach Lanier and Mark Stanislav about the many ways the Internet of Things isn't ready for prime time, security-wise, and some insight into the work being done to make it safe to connect your various 'Things' to the IoT. Enjoy, think carefully about how much you need your SlapChop all up in the cloud, and share.
http://youtu.be/WHdU4LutBGU?list=PL9fPq3eQfaaBCdjbKFYjosh1s1EkaYdsQ

We had a lot of incredible contests at DEF CON 22. So many contests that they could have seceded and formed the People’s Republic of Contestia. So many, in fact, that the results are still coming in over a week later. To keep you informed, we’ve created a Contest Results Page on defcon.org. Check out who won, find links to the contest websites for further information.

If you don’t see your favorite contest, let us know @_defcon_ or contact the contest organizer and ask them to submit their results.

The way I see it, Thursday is the Friday of the middle-week. So for your Thursday enjoyment, here's a talk fresh off the presses from DEF CON 22 - Dr. Phil Polstra speaking on low tech methods for detecting high-tech surveillance. Enjoy, take the info that works for you and pass it on. Share with everyone.
http://youtu.be/Bc7WoDXhcjM?list=PL9fPq3eQfaaBCdjbKFYjosh1s1EkaYdsQ

So you've been home from DEF CON for a week now - probably settled back into your normal routine. In the back of your mind, though, there's probably a little voice that wishes you could have DEF CON-style hacker camaraderie and learning opportunities all year long.

The good news is, you can. You can join a DC Group in your area. If there isn't a DC Group in your area, you can start one. The instructions for starting a group are at the link below, as well as a listing of the hundreds of groups that already exist around the world.

And when you get involved, be sure to keep in touch with us on social media. Let us know when you're meeting and we'll share it. Tape your presentations and we'll share those, too. Let's make this the fastest trip from one DEF CON to the next by keeping the ball rolling all year.

Legitimate Business Syndicate has placed the final results of the DEF CON 22 CTF Finals on their website.There's scores, some shout-outs and even an explanation of their fancy radio badge and the cool contest visualization they debuted this year.

Congratulations to all won the right to participate, and extra respect to Plaid Parliament of Pwning, HITCON and Dragon Sector for taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively.

What a difference a year makes. At DEF CON 21, Major Malfunction and Zac Franken created a Kickstarter for the RFIDler in a room at the Rio. At DEF CON 22, they returned with a mature and very impressive tool and even bigger plans for the future.

One of DEF CON's secret weapons is LosT, our resident Puzzle Master and Lord of the Badge. You can see his work all over DEF CON, from the insanely hackable badges to the secret codes and messages hidden all over the program and the venue.

This was an amazing year, and we've got a lot to share about it. Tons of stuff coming down the wire very shortly. In the meantime, enjoy this VERY thorough walkthrough of the DEF CON Badge Challenge from Team PotatoSec (Warning: Spoiler alert for those still trying to solve):

The hackening is in full swing at DEF CON 22. The Rio is abuzz with all manner of high-octane geekery. If you're here, you're probably too busy leveling up to keep an eye on the press surrounding the event, so we bring you this mini-roundup of press links to see what the rest of the world is saying about us.

DEF CON is in full swing - so there’s a million things going on. Here’s a few recent news items to tide you over while we get the party set up.

If you’re one of those people that enjoys being entertained by entertaining entertainers, you’re going to want to check out our newly minted ‘Entertainment’ page. So much music - it’s like Coachella for people who people smart enough to test out of Coachella.

For lawyers, judges and law students, there’s a Lawyer Meetup this year. DEF CON General Counsel and Chief Legal Raconteur Jeff McNamara invites all with a connection to the practice of law for a relaxed low-key meet up followed by a spirited trip to the Voodoo Lounge.

Don’t forget to stop by Track 3 at 9pm on Friday and Saturday for Movie Night with Dark Tangent. Friday we’re showing ‘The Internet’s Own Boy’ - a moving bio of internet hero Aaron Swartz. Director Brian Knappenberger and Aaron’s brother Noah will be in attendance for Q&A. Saturday, we’re showing ‘The Signal’. Directed by Will Eubank (who will also be in attendance), ‘The Signal’ is a mind-bending new scifi film that starts with some hackers on the road to DEF CON.

A few pro tips: stay hydrated, remember to eat and sleep. Keep the program handy - it’s like the Galactic Encyclopedia of DEF CON. Bring extra socks. Make new friends. Hack 100% of the things.

One week, people. All that stands between all of us and DEF CON is a few measly days. To help get you amped up, we offer the SomaFM preview stream. Like last year, SomaFM will be manning the chill room and providing luscious, rejuvenating audio delights whenever you're looking for a recharge or a welcoming nook amidst the chaos.

Fire up the stream and close your eyes. It's like you're already at DEF CON.

The sci-fi mind bender ‘The Signal’ centers around hackers on a road trip to DEF CON, so we can be forgiven for being a little biased in its favor. But from that promising starting place, the escalating weirdness and suspense take the movie everywhere but where you might expect. We don’t want to spoil anything - you’re gonna thank us if you go in with a clean slate. We’re proud to have ‘The Signal’ for Saturday’s ‘Movie Night with the Dark Tangent’, and we’re prouder still to have director Will Eubank on hand for Q&A after the screening. The last reel will definitely make you want to talk to Mister Eubank. Make it a point to be there! Saturday the 9th at 21:00, Track 3

For even faster leeching pleasure of the conference media server we have invested in hard drive duplication towers, and next year DT plans to launch the Data Duplication Village.

Too busy to pick and choose what you want from the server and want it all?? This year we have three sets of 4TB drives that contain the same data as the media server, just split up and color coded. If you want to duplicate a particular drive you need to show up at the INFO BOOTH with your drives at the start of each day. First come First server. It will take about 8 hours to dupe a 4TB drive so a set will start in the morning and a set in the evening, to finish overnight.

There should be six 1:11 duplication towers (If they show up in time), with two for each drive color. That means we can dupe 66 drives at a time. Once enough people show up to fill a station the duplication process starts.

Want in on it? Go buy some 4TB SATA II 7200 RPM drives (internal drives, not usb). Buy three if you want to try for the complete collection this year. I'd do it in advance, I think the local Frys will sell out! Duping should start Thursday!

You better have just done that spit-take. That's right. Electronica/Trip-Hop/IDM/dub music classics and pioneers: The Orb. They're here. They're kicking. And on the 3rd day of DEF CON (Saturday night/Sunday morning 00:00-01:00) their divine presence shall bless the glorious attendees who... attend their glorious and divine performance. Those who do not attend will be forsaken and cast into the dystopian landscape known as "the rest of Las Vegas." And so this event shall henceforth be written into the Dark Tangent's Book of DEF CON, Volume 22 - also referred to by some as "the conference program." So say we all.

A major announcement right here. We're bringing you the legendary DJ Spooky (That Subliminal Kid), a.k.a. Paul D. Miller. His CV runs deeper than the Mariana trench and is more Renaissance than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles combined. Perhaps originally and best known for his artisinal music crafting (collaborating on projects with Meat Beat Manifest, Slayer, Chuck D.) and turntablism , he's become a university music professor (EGS, Switzerland), author (too much stuff to list), and an executive director of Origin Magazine. He's had his works featured in major museums like the Warhol, The Whitney, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), blahblahblahblah the pseudo-anonymous writer of this announcement could go ad infinitum. The point is, he's attained legendary-levels of awesome, and is coming to DEF CON to drop some hip-hop (perhaps with orchestral accompaniament) on Thursday Night in Track 1 (22:00-23:00)!

A favorite from DEF CON XX (he dropped the killer set after The Crystal Method), we're bringing the near-mythical adrenaline-inducing Elite Force back for another sonic pummeling. Many of you may also recognize one of his prior projects, Lunatic Calm, which had music featured on films like The Matrix, Mortal Kombat: Annhilation, Drive, and tooons of others. We're extraordinarily excited to have Elite Force back, and we'll all need to be sure to keep our collective cholesterol levels in check to ensure we can survive his performance. Catch him Saturday night in track 1 (23:00-00:00)!

Another throwback to DEF CON XX, we're bringing back one of the grandmasters of Nerdcore hip-hop, MC FRONTALOT. His prolific lyrical stylings have been proverbially known to knock socks off, so shoes (as always) are encouraged (we'll let sandals slide too). He's also the star of the acclaimed documentary Nerdcore Rising. Catch him Friday night in Track 1 (23:00-00:00), alongside other hard-hitters and partners in nerdcore-crime Dual Core and ytcracker!

Today we announce eccentric retro electro video game chip-tune-inspired dance-rock that is purveyed by ANAMANAGUCHI. Not only is their music video game-inspired, their music actually HAS appeared on video games (like Rockband and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). The real deal! Check 'em out at the Friday festivities in track 1. (set time: 00:00, Saturday AM)!

Also be sure to check out their totally rad and typically incredibly neon music videos:

Do you remember the giant projection-mapped DEF CON exploded face? Or maybe the dragon installation? Or how about the DEF CON sign installation in the chillout lounge last year? These are the epic works of Zebbler's design team, who have also developed installations for the likes of Shpongle, EOTO, and a number of other class acts. But Zebbler doesn't just excel at design. He also excels, along with his comrade Encanti at music. Together, they form an incredible audiovisual duo that goes by Zebbler Encanti Experience, and they will be purveying this experience to you at DEF CON 22! Take delight in their glorious bassy weirdness at DEF CON's official Saturday evening event in track 1 (set time: 01:00, Sunday) !

Registration is now open for those willing to push their Cyber Traffic Analysis skills to the limit, you can compete in the latest Cyber Analytics and Network Forensics Challenge. Now in its fifth year ! Capture the Packet has brought more APT’s, Trojans, Malware, Web and Red team attacks, network issues and sneaky covert channel coms to one event ! Do you know when important data is leaking out of your network and who is doing it - Can you handle the Advanced Persistent Threat ? Can you spot that nasty bug your neighbors workstation contracted from visiting an infected website ? Can you spot a networking configuration issue with routing, spanning tree, BGP or OSPF ? Do you know how to count your IPV6 lucky stars ? Do you speak VOIP, MGCP or H323 ? We welcome everyone to try their hand at the most intense live network traffic analysis and forensic challenge, who knows you could be our next grand finals winner. You must bring your own laptop/computer to compete in this challenge, remember while this is not an attack game, it is a hostile network.

Details:

This year, the completion is handled in three Challenging phases:

Pre-Qualifying Rounds Start Thursday August 7th at 1:00pm and End Friday August 8th at 1:00pm
Those that have the highest scores “overall” from all rounds combined, essentially 40 teams will move on to the qualifying rounds

The Qualifying rounds are held starting Friday August 8th at 2:00pm and end on Saturday August 9th at 1:00pm
The top 10 teams from the Qualifying rounds with the highest over-all move on to the finals held on Saturday at 6:00pm

The Final round will consist of the top 10 scoring teams to survive the qualifying rounds,
These 12 teams will compete in a two hour long finals competition to determine the winner

Just a little over a month until we rendezvous at the Rio for DEF CON 22! Are you ready? We hear it's eleventy-one degrees there today, so bring weapons-grade sunscreen if you're one of those 'goes outside' kind of hackers.

You'll also want to know who's talking about what and when so you can plan your DEF CON experience. To that end, we proudly present the DEF CON 22 Speaker Schedule! Get yourself familiar, people. The key to maximum DEF CON is maximum planning. Or no planning. The key to maximum DEF CON has been in your heart all along. SCHEDULE IS LIVE!

We’re trying something new. Friday, June 27th at 11am Pacific Time, we’re hosting our first Google Hangout on Air. The guest is Jennifer Granick, DEF CON CFP Review Board member, preeminent hacker defense lawyer and Director of Civil Liberties for the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. The subject is her recent article for Wired regarding the verdict in United States v. Davis and what it could mean for the future of mass surveillance.

If you’ve got good questions about the intersection of law and ‘metadata’ collection, either leave them here in the comments or ask them live at the Hangout tomorrow.

‘This talk is amazing!’ You say this to yourself (inside voices) while watching someone awesome say and demonstrate awesome things. ‘How does DEF CON consistently pick so many great talks? They must have a team of borderline superheroes slogging through hundreds and hundreds of proposals for months! Who could those paragons of determination and insight BE, exactly? How could I learn their handles and perhaps show my appreciation by buying them many beers?’

Here’s an answer key to these questions you’re asking yourself:

1.)This talk probably is amazing. Not really a question.
2.)Lots of caffeine and eyestrain. Also dedication and love.
3.)They do have a team of borderline superheroes, and there is no DEF CON without them.
4.)They are known as the DEF CON CFP Review Board.

The 10th Annual EFF fundraiser, hosted by Vegas 2.0, has VIP tickets to event on sale now! Get early access to an intimate meet and greet with the Speakers of DEF CON! Also, get special schwag and extra raffle tickets exclusively for VIP guests!

This is it. The speaker list for DEF CON 22 is now locked and complete. This means two things: DEF CON is really almost here, and we are now hard at work creating the Tracks and the Schedule (watch this space, buckaroos). We're very proud of the lineup we've assembled, and we think you will find a lot of good stuff to choose from. Whether you're coming to Vegas or not, we'd love it if you'd take some time to check out the speaker list and give us some feedback about what talks have you the most excited.

The previously sooper seekret media.defcon.org server project has leaked out on the twitter and the face book. No use hiding behind our press secretary any longer, It's better to just admit it and let everyone make up their own minds.

WHAT LEAKED? The Dark Tangent is collecting as much open source security conference footage, training materials, podcasts, white papers, videos, and anything else haxors may be interested in. He plans to make it all available at DEF CON 22 in August and let anyone download it, or even direct HD copy it.

WHO LEAKED THIS SECRET PROJECT? The Dark Tangent. Oops.

WHAT NOW? A huge burden has been lifted off of DT and he no longer has to live two lives. He can now focus on getting as much content as possible from the community.

That's where you come in.

HOW CAN I HELP?
Send links to content you think everyone should have access to that is related to the hacking and infosec scene somehow. It can be an rss podcast, a .torrent of academic journals, and ftp link to text files, a web site to mirror full of source code, an svn operating system repository, a YouTube channel, whatever!

Send your links in an email to dtangent@defcon.org, or tweet them to
@thedarktangent and he will start the leeching.

HOW DO I GET MY HANDS ON THE DATA?
At DEF CON 22 you will be able to get to the gigs in a couple different
ways. The con Wi-Fi network (at 802.11g speeds), through wired switches on 1 gig links in different areas, or by bringing your own 4TB SATAII or III hard drive(s).

We will have HD duplicators running all con copying drives for people who just want to drop off a drive and pick it up later.

Do you think you can code? Do think you can code while drinking? We're not
talking about coding in the warm safe confines of your cubicle. No, this is
programming for sport. It's live competition, against the clock, and the
other teams. And we don't make it easy. Have the smarts to solve our
programming challenges? Good. We want you to show us that programming is not
only about laying down some sweet sweet code, it's about the style in which
you do so. Sound fun? We think it is.

Crash And Compile is a ACM-style programming contest crossed with a drinking
game, where teams of two people try to solve as many programming problems as
they can. As teams compile and run their programs, each time their code fails
to compile, produces the incorrect output, or seg-faults, the team must drink.
Meanwhile, our lovely Team Distraction will be doing what they can to make the
job of programming while intoxicated all the more difficult and/or enjoyable.

It’s getting pretty real, people. The speaker selection process is almost complete, the party and event planning is in full swing - DEF CON 22 is just a little over two months away!

To celebrate, another round of speaker announcements. Twenty-five more abstracts to help you create your DEF CON battle plan. We anticipate one more round of announcements before the roster is locked, but by now you should have a pretty good idea how much good stuff we have on tap.

The Cyber Grand Challenge asks some simple questions - can you create a fully-automated system to detect, thwart and mitigate network attacks? Can you build one so effective that it can win an all-computer tournament without human intervention? Would you like 2 million dollars?

If you have a great proposal but lack the funds for a 2-year competition, you can pitch DARPA for funding - they’re already backing seven of the registered teams. Teams that survive the quals in June 2015 are eligible to compete in the final tournament at DEF CON in 2016. Grand prize is $2 million dollars.

Competitors will need a dizzying array of skills and an encyclopedic understanding of every form of network kung-fu. They will also need a pretty serious amount of free time, but the winner gets a nice check and an answer to the question of what to put first on a resumé.

We believe that such a team must exist in the DEF CON family. If you think you’re up to the challenge, more information awaits you at the DARPA CGC page.

Posted 5.23.14

Hot off the presses - more speaker selections. Several of them are for the DEF CON 101 Track, newly expanded for DC 22 and running all the way through the con. The rest of the presentations listed here fall into the other tracks, and if we do say so ourselves, this is shaping up to be quite the year, hackwise. You’re definitely going to want to make sure you have a seat for some of these. The titles alone should tell you we’re coming correct in 2014.

DEF CON 101 Presentations!

Now running Thurdsay through Sunday!

The DEF CON 101 track is a series of talks aimed at attendees who are not yet internationally-recognized infosec experts. This is not the n00b track. But if you're interested and engaged in the hacker community, these sessions are right up your alley. From Sysadmins & NOC Jockeys to College Students & IT Professionals, everyone exploring the world of Information Security can expect to feel welcome, not intimidated. We have grouped the sessions by interest area, so you're not spending all day bouncing between talks.

Posted 5.22.14

You’ve had the thought: “DEF CON is super fun, but how much cooler would this be if there was a little corner devoted to my weird niche interest?” ‘From Dusk Til Con’ is your chance to realize that overly specific dream. Got a mini-village idea? Want to run an Inception style Con-within-the Con? Want to play strip Settlers of Cataan? Shoot us your ideas for themed mini-events on the Crawl and we’ll make the best ones happen.

Posted 5.21.14

The DEF CON 22 CTF Qualifiers are in the books. Challenges were faced, and bested. Points were accumulated. Bedtimes were missed. It’s all over but the paperwork.

So here’s a roundup of writeup links. IF you participated, read and see how other people approached the same problems. If you didn’t, read and get an idea of how the CTF process works and consider signing up next time. You lose 100% of the CTFs you don’t enter.

If you enter, you could still lose 100%. That’s just math. But you’ll have a story. An awesome, glorious, highly technical story to share with the tiny slice of humanity who can understand this sort of thing.

There’s also a bonus link to a GitHub collection that looks like it might end up pretty comprehensive.

Don’t look now, but it’s already the middle of May. DEF CON 22 is just over the horizon, a little less than three months away. Preparations are in high gear.

Today, we bring you more talks - 15 more, to be exact. You can check out the abstracts and speaker bios on the DC22 speaker page. We think you’ll like the choices - there’s everything from shortwave radio steganography to mischief with car firmware.

There’s more coming, of course, so keep checking back with our speaker page as we flesh out the roster.

We’re hard at working choosing the best of the CFP submissions, and today we have five more confirmations to announce. Watch this space for more speaker announcements in the coming weeks. It’s shaping up to be a pretty fascinating roster.

Also, don’t let the contest ending stop you - if you have the urge to create some on-theme artworks between now and the show, we’d be happy to share them with the world. You won’t win anything beyond our love and gratitude, but that’s not exactly nothing.

The DEF CON 22 art contest has closed, and it’s time to start picking the winners. In the ‘People’s Choice’ category, that means it’s time for YOU to cast a vote. Check out the Artwork Contest Entries Gallery on Facebook and cast a ‘Like’ for your favorite.

The winner gets free admission to DC22, $25 credit at the Swag Booth and inky immortality in the DC22 printed program, so it’s kind of a big deal. The theme was ‘Behind the Curtain’, and the winning work should in some way capture the sense of the hidden world behind the world that is seen. Cast your votes wisely.

And as always, we thank everyone who participated in this year’s contest. If you didn’t submit and you’re feeling a little jelly, we offer the wise words of Socrates, who said to his students, “He is not wise who playa-hates; the truly wise participate. This mimosa is terrible.”

Posted 4.18.14

Attention Entreprenerds!

DEF CON 22’s Vendor Area is a great opportunity to get your geek-centric product in front of a highly focused, upwardly mobile and possibly drunk audience of over 10,000 vacationing tech enthusiasts. Share your business with people passionate about technology, make sales, even make friends.

To sign up, head over to the vendor site, read the FAQ and get the forms filled out. Don’t delay - August is closer than you think.

Posted 4.10.14

It's official. CON season is really upon us.

DEF CON HQ is proud to announce the first round of accepted speakers! Take a look, let us know what you think and what you're looking forward to most. We'd also love it if you kept your eye on the speaker page, because we'll be posting the rest of the accepted speakers as they are selected. On the speaker page you can watch DEF CON 22 taking shape, and you can weigh in here or @_defcon_.

We think you're gonna like the choices so far. Get excited - the countdown has begun!

Posted 4.8.14

The Social Engineering Capture the Flag contest is back for DEF CON 22 - this time with a Tag Team Twist! Spread the word and get signed up if you're ready to test your SE skills in Vegas!

DEF CON 22 CTF: Registration is Open!

Posted 4.1.14

Good news, everyone!

Registration for the DEF CON 22 CTF season is open! To accomodate international competitors, the qualifying weekend has been moved to May 17-19.

It is time to assemble your champions. Sharpen them to a fine point. The doors to the arena open May 17. Fortune looks kindly upon boldness and skill. Failing those, she also seems pretty okay with treachery and subversion.

The DEF CON 22 Contests, Events and Villages RFI is Now Open!

Posted 3.31.14

Got an idea for a game-changing contest or event? Maybe you have the expertise to run a village on a compelling topic we've overlooked? This is your moment. Submit your idea on the DEF CON CnE website - we'll partner up with the best ideas and help make them happen.

The rules and guidelines are available on the CnE website. Check them out, and get yourself involved. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

DC22 Artwork Contest: Only Two Weeks Left!

Posted 3.26.14

We know that art takes time. We know that artists like to paint themselves into deadline corners, waiting until the last minute for inspiration to strike. If that's you, please bear in mind that the minutes run out in about two weeks. If you want to have your work considered for the contest, it has to be in to us by April 10. No exceptions.

Also, if you know a creative soul who might enjoy the opportunity, be sure to share this with them. We'd really love to showcase a lot of cool work this year.

Be the Match returning to DEF CON 22!

Posted 3.19.14

For the 4th year, 'Be the Match' is returning to DEF CON. It's your opportunity to register as a Bone Marrow Donor, and maybe someday save a life. There are lots of ways to hack your body, but this one doesn't slow you down at airports or make you look sketchy.

It also makes you kind of a hero.

To find out more about how 'Be the Match' works, you can check them out at these links:

DEF CON 22 Artwork Contest!

The theme of this year's art contest is "Behind the Curtain". Secrets. Lies. Alibis. The magic shades in 'They Live'. The world behind the world, where all the hidden gears are turning. The code and subterfuge employed by the adept to sneak knowledge past the sleeping and the uninitiated.

Cool, right? If you can put together a jaw-dropping variation on that theme in the next 30 days, prizes and glory could be yours. Free admissions to DEF CON 22, credit to burn on DEF CON Swag, maybe even a T-shirt with your art on it.

There are Categories and Rules, of course. And a Deadline. All of these are important. These things make it a contest. But you, my undercover artist friend, you make it epic. Pencils up and good luck.

Call for Musicians/Artists/DJs application is LIVE!

If you're a musical performer, a DJ or an ambient Esperanto slam poet* who dreams of performing at DEF CON, this is your moment. We're beginning to select music acts for DEF CON 22, and we might very well need YOU.

Extra slots for Chillout/Ambient/Downtempo types this year, so you lower-BPM types should make sure to apply.

Continuing the tradition of recognizing strong performance in Capture The Flag events through the year, Legitimate Business Syndicate is proud to announce the following events as DEF CON 22 CTF pre-qualification events:

Event

Date

Organizers

Qualified Team

DEF CON 21 CTF

August 1-4, 2013

by Legitimate Business Syndicate

Plaid Parliament of Pwning

RuCTFe

December 14, 2013

by hackerdom

More Smoked Leet Chicken

Ghost In The Shellcode

January 17-19, 2014

by Men in Black Hats + Marauders

Dragon Sector

Olympic CTF

February 7-9, 2014

by More Smoked Leet Chicken

penthackon

Boston Key Party

February 28 - March 2, 2014

by Boston Key Party

???

Codegate Finals

April 1-2, 2014

by Codegate

???

PHDays

May 21-22, 2014

by phdays

???

SecuInside

Unannounced

by SecuInside

???

Twelve more spots will be available to teams wishing to play at the DEF CON 22 Capture The Flag through our own open qualifiers, hosted May 17-May 19.

All qualifying teams will receive eight "Human" badges for admission to DEF CON 22 this year, as well as two hotel rooms at the Rio Las Vegas, for the duration of the event.

DEF CON Future Dates!

Sure, you know that DEF CON 22 rolls around August 7-10, 2014. Everyone knows that. But do you know the dates for DEF CON 23? DEF CON 24?

Probably not, because we're announcing it right now. DEF CON 23 will be August 6-9, 2015, and DEF CON 24 will be August 4-7, 2016.

When we announced the discount room rates for the Rio last month, there was some kind of glitch in the Matrix. The first 200 signups were granted a rate even lower than our block rate. The Keymaker at the Rio has agreed to honor this rate for those lucky registrants. He had the Architect explain it to me, but he droned on so long I lost the plot. What I can confirm is that the 200th registration was reached, the anomaly was smoothed over and real-world rates have returned.

As ever, Fortune favors the bold.

The corrected rate (based on occupancy of up to three per room and taxed at 12%) is:
Sunday -Thursday $119.00
Friday & Saturday $129.00

They charge an extra $30 a night if you add a fourth. Sometimes it's worth it. We don't judge.

Even that rate won't last long – the DEF CON block is about 40% sold. To book now and get the block rate, follow this link. See how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Got something cool to share on the DEF CON network during DC22? Could be almost anything - a game, a stash of vintage K-Rad textfiles, whatever you think Con goers might wanna download. Submit your idea online, and if it's approved you'll get a couple of bonded gig ports and some promotion in the program and on the site. Sharing is kinda our thing - and we're counting on you to add some fun content. Apply today. Operators are standing by.*

Posted 2.3.14

For those who aren't aware, DC101 is a Thursday event, a kind of combination Opening Ceremonies/Orientation MiniCon. The talks accepted are loosely engineered to acclimate you to DEF CON proper and to help you maximize your DC experience. You can get a look at the talks that were accepted last year at this link:

Posted 1.29.14

The DEF CON Short Story Contest is back, and it's already open! No excuses - you have from now until the first of June to get your story in for the chance to win some cool prizes and get your story shared with the whole DC community. Four months to shape your hacker lit masterpiece. Make us proud.

DEF CON 22 Call for Papers is Now Open!

Posted 1.23.14

It's that time again folks! Polish up those ninja caliber proposals, because The DEF CON Call for Papers is now officially open! Read the announcement and find out what's new, then fill out the CFP form and start down the road to DEF CON glory! Good luck!

Book a room at the Rio for DEF CON 22!

Posted 1.15.14

For those of you that want to get a jump on DEF CON 22, you can now book your room for DEF CON 22 at our discounted rate! Register now and save! We have a special discount for the first 200 reservations made in the DEF CON block. There are still a few left, so jump in now and stay at our host venue for the full DEF CON Experience!

Announcing DEF CON 22 CTF!

Posted 1.10.14

Legitimate Business Syndicate has announced their intention to return as organizers of the Capture the Flag competition! Check out their DEF CON 22 CTF Announcement blog post!

DEF CON 22 CTF Quals Tentative Dates Announced!

Posted 10.26.13

The team over at Legitimate Business Syndicate is getting a jump on things for DEF CON 22, and have announced their tentative dates for the 2014 CTF Quals! The 2014 Quals will be held Midnight May 17 to Midnight May 19, 1400284800 to 1400457600. Keep an eye on https://legitbs.net for all of their updates, and for links to the LegitBS Blog and twitter feed!

Join us August 7-10 at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas!

$220 USD for all four days! Cash only at the door, there is no pre-registration.